From interviewing naked models to breaking bread with Matt Lauer, Richard Deitsch has been there, done that

Deadline was fast approaching when Richard Deitsch (BA
’92) got a hurried call from a high-ranking editor at Sports
Illustrated to write a spread on body painting for the annual
swimsuit issue.

He arrived posthaste at a Manhattan studio to interview Joanne
Gair, a prominent body artist, and the model she was painting, who
turned out to be Heidi Klum—a nude Heidi Klum. “It took
a good five minutes to wrap my head around the fact that I’m
interviewing one of the most beautiful women in the world,
who’s nude,” Deitsch recalls, laughing. “I told
myself, Bob Woodward never faced this kind of test.”

Deitsch has been living his dream: working for
the magazine that set the course for his future in sportswriting
after his mother, a professor at SUNY’s Farmingdale State
College, gifted him with a subscription when he was 7 years old.
“The people who wrote for that magazine felt like giants to
me,” he says. “It became my goal to work for
SI.”

Deitsch, who grew up in Wantagh, N.Y., has covered nearly every
division at Sports Illustrated since interning at SI for Kids in
1997. His current beats are sports media, which he initiated at the
magazine, women’s basketball, tennis and the Olympics.

His seventh Olympics, in Sochi, was marked by a dubious lead-up
of possible terrorism and alleged corruption, but the competitive
heat of the games soon vanquished any dark clouds. In addition to
covering “one of the most spectacular events” of his
career (the women’s hockey gold medal match), Deitsch found
himself writing more media stories than expected, thanks to
perennial anchor Bob Costas’ sudden absence. “Normally,
rank-and-file reporters like myself don’t get to hobnob with
NBC talent, but ironically I was booked into the same hotel and saw
Costas, Matt Lauer and Al Michaels every day at breakfast. As a
reporter, I was in the center of the storm.”

Deitsch maintains that he would not have landed his dream job
without his pivotal experience at UB. Although he majored in
communications and political science, he refers to his work on the
student newspaper as his real major. “My love of journalism
was fostered at The
Spectrum,” he says. “It gave me confidence that
maybe I would have a shot at a career in this field.”